Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Hungary set to turn screws on Soros-backed NGOs

Budapest
(AFP) - Hungarian NGOs have long felt the heat under strongman Prime
Minister Viktor Orban -- but they now fear that, emboldened by Donald
Trump's victory, the right-wing premier will turn the screws even
tighter.

First
in line may be groups backed by Hungarian-born billionaire financier
George Soros, whose foundation once funded the Oxford studies of a young
Orban more than 25 years ago.

Last
week the deputy head of Orban's ruling party Fidesz, in power since
2010, said that non-governmental organisations should be "cleaned out of
here".

Szilard
Nemeth said that criticism of government policies by "fake" civil
organisations set up to "influence politics" by Soros and others was
"impermissible".

The
remarks triggered alarm among beleaguered NGOs, many of which -- in the
absence of a credible political opposition -- have long attacked
Orban's sweeping revamp of state institutions and hardline
anti-immigration stance.

"This
is a new level of NGO-bashing," said Marta Pardavi, co-head of the
Hungarian branch of the Helsinki Committee, a human rights group that
provides free advice to asylum-seekers.

Nemeth
name-checked the body as potential targets along with civil rights
group TASZ and corruption watchdog Transparency International.

"The
notion that we should be swept away like rubbish or have no right to
comment on politics shows their arrogant intolerance of different
views," Pardavi told AFP.

Her
office, staffed by some two dozen lawyers, heaves with case files as
well as reports that have slammed Orban's anti-migration policies.

She
freely admits that her organisation relies on foreign funding to
continue operating. But "otherwise it's not possible to do human rights
advocacy work in Hungary," she says.

Mirroring
pressure in Russia under President Vladimir Putin, scrutiny of
foreign-funded NGOs has been cranked up since Orban was re-elected in
2014.

Dozens of groups supported by Norway were investigated by government auditors over alleged financial irregularities.

None were found, and the purge prompted US President Barack Obama to warn Hungary against a "clampdown" on civil society.

- 'Foreign money' -

Orban's
spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told AFP that the election of Trump as US
president -- Orban is a great admirer -- will bring in a "new era".

"With the new US administration, pseudo civil sector activity is not going to drive international politics," he told AFP.

But Kovacs stressed that Hungary was not about to kick anybody out.

"The
rule of law prevails in Hungary. It's impossible to have singular or
targeted action against anyone. Any new rules will apply to all and be
in line with EU and international law," Kovacs said.

But he added: "It's clear we need changes, we don't know how much foreign money or foreign influence there is behind NGOs."

"Many
on the political left claim they are civilians but they clearly have
political goals and act like the political opposition."

A
draft bill addressing "transparency" of NGO funding will be submitted
to parliament around April, according to a schedule on the Hungarian
parliament website.

Details have yet to be worked out though, said Kovacs.

- Soros in crosshairs -

The
86-year-old Soros, whose Open Society Foundations (OSF) body has funded
civil groups in Eastern Europe since the 1980s, is in the crosshairs of
the new push.

"Soros
has decided that he will be Viktor Orban's opponent and opposition in
Hungarian politics... People have the right to know which organisations
he's doing this through," Orban's chief-of-staff Janos Lazar said last
week.

Hungarian
officials have even accused Soros-backed NGOs of posing a national
security risk during Europe's migration crisis by allegedly colluding
with human-smugglers and "terrorists".

It's a charge Marta Pardavi says could scare off small donors if they fear their data might be compromised.

"What a wonderful way of discrediting NGOs," she said.

The OSF meanwhile has no plans to quit Hungary, its president Christopher Stone said.

"We
are not the opposition, neither in Hungary, nor elsewhere. We are
promoters of open debate," he said in a statement emailed to AFP.

The
body says it currently funds over 60 Hungarian NGOs, ranging from
corruption watchdogs and investigative journalists to human rights and
anti-discrimination bodies.

It
has also awarded thousands of scholarships to Hungarian students --
including Orban in 1989 -- while the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and
TASZ were even praised by Fidesz before 2010.